The ouster of NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller caps a tough, traumatic six months for the nonprofit news organization, one marked by the clumsy termination of news analyst Juan Williams, the resulting resignation of Senior Vice President for News Ellen Weiss and now Ron Schiller’s disparaging comments about conservatives and the tea party movement.

Both the Williams firing and Ron Schiller’s comments (he is not related to Vivian Schiller) have spurred claims by conservatives that NPR is biased. Following Williams' firing, some Republican lawmakers called for cutting off federal funding to NPR. In Ron Schiller’s comments captured on video, he said that NPR “would be better off in the long run without federal funding.”

“I recognize the magnitude of this news,” said Board of Directors Chairman Dave Edwards in a statement, “and that it comes on top of what has been a traumatic period for NPR and the larger public radio community.” (My live blog of NPR's news conference regarding the resignation, posted below, has more details.)

Unlike people who act as commentators, Vivian Schiller said in a memo to member stations, news analysts like Williams “may not take personal public positions on controversial issues; doing so undermines their credibility as analysts.” She also said this was not the first time NPR had problems with Williams.

In that statement, the board expressed measured support for Vivian Schiller’s leadership:

"The Board has expressed confidence in Vivian Schiller's leadership going forward. She accepted responsibility as CEO and cooperated fully with the review process. The Board, however, expressed concern over her role in the termination process and has voted that she will not receive a 2010 bonus.

That support seems to have evaporated in the 24 hours since conservative activist James O’Keefe released a video in which Ron Schiller spoke disparagingly about conservatives to two people posing as Muslim donors.

Ron Schiller already was planning to leave his post as senior vice president for fundraising for a job at the Aspen Institute. On Tuesday, he said he would leave immediately; Wednesday morning, the Aspen Institute announced that he had decided not to join the organization.

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Steve Myers was the managing editor of Poynter.org until August 2012, when he became the deputy managing editor and senior staff writer for The Lens, a nonprofit investigative news site in New Orleans.